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new kid on the block!

57944 Views 324 Replies 37 Participants Last post by  Ember
hello all, after far too many hours spent reading all the excellent advice and information on this site i've got going with my wooden track and literally up to my elbows in contact adhesive, grouting and paint mixing, and loving every minute of building my new sandstone cliffs.i got going again with the old scalextric track over the summer as a neighbour gave me a load of old curves, the track grew, bigger than the toy room and into the big space i've got near my workshop, during august that track was decorated and filled with props (with help from my 6 year old, who built a lego snack area for the pits!) and we have since staged a successful tournament last saturday with 27 drivers of all ages (not bad for a village of 250 people), since then i started on track number 2 in wood, have done the levels, routing and nearly finished the cliffs, but awaiting the copper and still tons of modelling to do.....but how happy am i doing it?, you get to regress to being a 4 year old mucking about with dirt and paint and glue, then when its done you turn in to an 8 year old and speed around a small spanish village at 1/32nd scale....GREAT.

anyway, just wanted to sign in and will try and post some pics soon of the 2 tracks,(when i've figured out how!)

cheers sig
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QUOTE (sig @ 30 Oct 2009, 21:19) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>fantastic web sites ron thanks a lot i'll definatly be using the textures one for sure, but might just laser cut my own bench, ought to be a bit cheaper

heres a tag on the web site that tickled my fancy...no argueing with the guy there.....


Ah .. quite, I forgot you got your own machinery for that ..

Hmm .. mr H. should have had another hobby, I think. Just like his *friend* mr. Göring .. who liked more playing with a Model Railroad instead of *playing war* .. but on the other hand, history tells us how bad also that turned out.

ps. Yes, I've seen the lights previously somewhere else .. that's a great idea! Looks good, too!

-- ron --
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The lights are one more step you climbed and we like to see you climb! The last picture you posted is great, but what called my attention were the cars parked on the road and the slot going around them. Very realistic for many places in Europe and it looks great!!
The Art-Kit lights are stunning. I've come across their website on more than a few occasions by following threads. They top off your track(s) beautifully Sig. Just how many did you get for you EUR 80?

Wish we weren't so far away from things down here. Arh well. Guess I'll just have to get devious when it comes to lighting my track in the few places that I have planned.

Keep up the great work Sig. Ohhh and party harty! Happy Halloween/Samhain to all you Northerners!
the rustic lamp post cost 12.50 for 2, the motorway single lamps and posts cost 6.50 each and the doubles 9.25

the base plates are 10 euros for 4...prices all on their web site, and small rackage i'm sure postage to australia wouldn't be that much
happy halloween/castanada
sig
Sig,
This is a great source you have found. I am always searching for ways to do LESS custom work and I have wondered why there were no lights WITH mounting bases WITH plug in electricals. You found it!

The prices seem a big higher (given they are in Euros) than railway accessories, but I guess that is the cost of the sport.
All the "good retail stuff" seems to come from the UK/Europe and not across the pond.

Thanks again for the lead.
Cheers!
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ok.. hi folks hope you all had a good weekend!

now considering i spent 7 years training to be an architect the following is a shameful plan!, but i dont care as i know it'll change as soon as the router comes out, but you get the general idea. the planes are drawn to scale and they are 1 and a half sheets of mdf (it'll be the lid of the village track on some sort of winch hence it needs to be flat.
the planes are flying fortress (the one with 4 motors) black widow (top right ) catalina (on the tarmac) and mirage and thunderjet bottom right. there will also be an old truck i suppose and some form of broken barbed wire fencing for the entrance to the air strip (near the fortress...possibly the fortress is or was on a plinth like a museum)
the track is single lane and trying to get the most varied drive possible, including the fuselage tunnel (some big old scratchbuilt thing) and the spiral donut area, the landscaping will be busted tarmac runway, mud and dust with weeds.there will probably be some out buildings of some form also


according to how the actual model planes go, there should be plenty of tipped up, broken winged, half salvaged and graffitied stuff everywhere, done with decal sheets over an aged paint job.....trial and error!,

the route for the car may change as i said and any forseeable problems i would welcome to hear, but this is gonna be mostly about me trying to become a good modeller, not building a fast track or anything like that.

models should be arriving this week i hope


cheers sig
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Hey sig .. the track looks good, it seems there's two longish straights?

Took just a peek a another [plastic kits] Forum. There's a group-build on B-17's>> .. there could be some useful pictures ..

And at that, another B-17 linky>> .. the renovation of *Mephis Belle*. Some nice pix there too!

Reg. the planes, you could have a on-going-outdoor-salvage/dismanteling of the planes. Or renovation .. outdoors, as climate is nice [?] The big fuselage is in three parts, the guys are having fun and made a ramp through the middle one. Wings are taken off [see pictures page 2. in the 2. link] and are layed along the fuselage. Otherwise, the huge wingspan might dwarf perhaps every other scenic item.

How's the fuselage size on this, Fairchild C-123K>>

-- ron --
great info ron, thanks again, looks like they were definately made of steel (i wondered if they were aluminium framed)which means i can get my rust colours out again..yippee!, also the ribs show me how it would slump and break if necessary
i like this foto that explains a lot about how the body crumples too!


like the fairchild too, need to decide on which big bruiser will be the fuselage tunnel!
cheers sig
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I know you had mentioned the possibility of a jump? How bout a C4?? Already has a ramp at the back? You could enter (or exit) via the ramp, the fuselage could have a break/ Buckle in the Middle; The car could head up via the ramp, up and over the break and back down exiting though a blast hole!??? Jump would also make a handy place for the track to come undernieth!??
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I can't wait to see this one develop, and as nothing goes to plan the spur of the moment thing is gonna be your friend.

So what do you plan to cover this one with ? :)

cheers
That plan looks great sig! I was wondering one thing though, aren't the slot cars gonna get stuck in the inner circle of the spiral?
I really like the idea but make sure the driving experience is a good one. One thing I do not like about airfields is that they are flat!
As a scenery theme it is absolutely fantastic and I will be looking forward for each update.
cheers guys,
wijnand..the inner circle of the spiral needs to be a smaller diameter than my prototype (post 87) but you are right i need to make sure the inner diameter is small enough to kick the tail out but not too small that it will lock the guide, its all aboout throttle control!

lars...already thought that if i do the track low it'll be able to have number 4 on top we'll still be at about 1m 20 high

i call the system stack-a-track!! (tongue in cheek) will do a sketch when i get round to it, quite logical really just unhook the cables and raise the amount of layers you need to raise to expose the track you want!

masmojo...it would seem the consensus wants me to do a jump of some form.. i'll keep it in mind but have much to learn about planes before i start modeling on from scratch in and out and with a slot going through it!,

bueno ya veremos

hasta pronto sig
rally ..just seen your comment, (we were writing at the same time), i fancy using the plaster again for the road textures so although there won't be any elevations, i'll play with texture..found this diarama of a black widow today, imagine driving from a flat bit of track into a bomb crater all of a sudden, ...could be fun!
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i like this track it will be like when james may meet ken block linky

dont go to tight on the "eye-ball spin dryer" scaly do 4 inch on rad1 bends dont know who tight you can go whith CNC or router b4 cars get stuk

i think you nead a Subaru Impreza pantd like kens shame no1 makes it (or do thay)



you could do his old car

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NO WAY! i honestly hadn't seen that before....heres me thinking i was being imaginative and original and the sods at top gear go and beat me to it!, the jumps , the fuselage tunnel, the wrecked planes the weeds and the donuts!, i may as well not bother now!
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Awwww... don't do that. Told you to dig around Ken Block stuff. He's right up your alley.

Hmmm... If you don't want to go Aero Graveyard. How about deserted theme park? That should give you some room for fun. But I still think the plane cemetary's worth doing.

Cheers
Embs
i have to say i am quite irrationally dissapointed! this is just the story of my life! when i was 8 i had a theory that south america at one point was connected to africa, because on my map it looked a bit like a jigsaw, i figured it must have rained a lot and therefore made the atlantic ocean which seperated the 2....i was gutted at 12 in my science lesson when they told me about plate techtonics! somebody had already discovered it...gutted..happens all the time in furniture design too, you come up with a great design and then the next magazine you pick up and vitra have just released something the same...something about collective consciousness!

anyway the planes are on their way, i'll have to add something they didnt have
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Jeez .. ! The video is amazing .. the plane, the bike & the car in same frame .. pure art. Fascinating stuff.

Sig .. it's synchronicity! [Jung, not Sting]

Also .. we start as individuals, by upbringing, education and social behaving patterns we always end up copying ang being like copies of somebody else ..

*Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY!
You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
Man in crowd: I'm not...
The Crowd: Sch! ..*

-- ron [I think .. but I'm not sure] --
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QUOTE (sig @ 5 Nov 2009, 10:46) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>i have to say i am quite irrationally dissapointed! this is just the story of my life! when i was 8 i had a theory that south america at one point was connected to africa, because on my map it looked a bit like a jigsaw, i figured it must have rained a lot and therefore made the atlantic ocean which seperated the 2....i was gutted at 12 in my science lesson when they told me about plate techtonics! somebody had already discovered it...gutted..happens all the time in furniture design too, you come up with a great design and then the next magazine you pick up and vitra have just released something the same...something about collective consciousness!

anyway the planes are on their way, i'll have to add something they didnt have


Well, that's my favorite show, but I had completely forgot about that episode!!

Seriously though what you are talking about happens to me all the time, I will come up with an idea of a better way to do something and others in the group will shoot it down (usually on some sort of technical point, "We do not have the technology or program to do that") then 4 or 5 years on, somebody else gets a big slap on the back for proposing pretty much the same think I came up with MUCH earlier! Hard to say if they heard my idea or common sense/experiences made them draw the same conclusions and naturally being after the time of my original idea the technology had progressed enough to make it feasable!!"

Furniture design, Well yes it one of those things! People have been doing it for hundereds if not thousands of years so allot of great minds have given it a go! Not to be discouraged you are in the footsteps of some of the greats Eileen Gray or Le Corbisier and there are still people doing some original stuff Like Phillipe Starck and Mark Newsome. (forgive me if I misspelt some if not all of those names
)

Still, you would be the first to make this concept into a slot car track and THAT would be original!! Frankly I think it's a better concept for a slot car track then a real one, because with a sLot car track you can have fun with the laws of Physics without any real reprecussions, with a real car you have to worry about car damage and dying!!


It is a lofty concept though, very ambitious and since I personally do not have the time for it, that's what would scare me off. On the other hand you seem to work very quickly so . . . . what the heck!!
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